In this Acronym TV report, host Dennis Trainor, Jr speaks with Selin, a 19 year-old female resident of Isthanbul, who recounts the physical and physiological abuse she endured after she was arrested during the Occupy Gezi protest last week. Occupy Wall street organizer, Justin Wedes, at her side in Isthanbul sums up the five immediate demands that have emerged from the Gezi occupation while Jenna Pope, photojournalist and OWS activist also reports from Gezi park that the protesters are well aware that the whole world is watching and drawing strength from their efforts. “Everything is connected,” Pope says, “people all over the world are fighting against these governments who are only interested in making the very rich even richer.” As one protester in Turkey puts it: “This is no longer about the trees.”
What started as a protest to protect green space in Istanbul has quickly morphed into the latest chapter in the Global Revolution for true Democracy. “We have more in common with the working person in Turkey than we have in common with the American ruling class,” says Occupy Wall Street Activist Joel Prentice Northam, who added that it is important to study the struggles in other nation states.
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